Throw Away the Excuse Box: Run Service Like Sales

Each month dealers spend thousands of dollars in advertising just to attract vehicle shoppers or opportunities to their showroom. To maximize all of these expensive opportunities, dealers hold weekly, even daily sales meetings to motivate and train their vehicle sales people. The meetings are fun, often include music, always have a clearly defined goal and a they include a review of individual sales performance so everyone knows where they are and where they need to go. Vehicle sales people leave these meetings pumped-up, with a ‘never say no’ attitude and the belief that they can overcome any objection and reach their sales objectives, no matter what.

When I ask dealers about car sales, they almost always tell me that selling cars is a tough business, and getting tougher, but they are survivors, they are winners, and they will do whatever it takes to succeed. They admit that they spend more on advertising, focus more on training and work harder to close every deal until they reach their goal, and they do it every month. It is that entrepreneurial, never-give-up, no excuses spirit that makes car dealers and the car business so great.

And then I ask them about their Service Department and they break out the excuse box. Warranty work is down, maintenance intervals are stretched out which means less traffic, cars don’t break as often as they used to and the competition is growing and getting tougher every day. They even admit that they don’t really feel comfortable in service, aren’t happy with the numbers and in some cases have all but given up.

My Message is this: Throw away the Excuse Box. You run a very successful vehicle sales department and you know what you are doing – you know how to sell. Why not run your service department the same way, like a sales department.

If you need traffic, advertise and do it aggressively, just like you do in vehicle sales.  Increase your service advertising budget- don’t cut it.  Your service department can be the most profitable department in your store, and it builds long term relationships that result in hundreds of new and used vehicle purchases.

When you advertise, do it right, and be aggressive, just like you do in vehicle sales. Always advertise well known services at competitive prices and target your own customer database before going outside – if you got all of your own customers back you couldn’t handle all of the business. Make sure you remind customers that you are a good deal, that you have better technicians, better parts, better warranties and better testing equipment than anybody – face it, you are probably the best kept secret in town.

Next, hold motivating service sales meetings at least weekly to teach your advisors how to sell, how to get more service appointments, and how to identify and overcome objections. Show them how to make it easy for customers to say yes and hard to say no. Remember: The goal here is to convert your service advisors into well trained Service Salespeople. And this isn’t rocket science…You already know how to do it, you do it every day in the vehicle sales department, all I am saying is to take that enthusiasm and energy and knowledge you have about selling to the service department. Don’t for a minute say you don’t know that much about service – and trust me – it doesn’t matter if you are selling cars, selling parts, or selling service, it’s all just selling and you are good at it.